The United States will not withraw the diplomatic immunity of former U.S. Chargé d'Affaires André Goodfriend, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Minister of State for Economic Diplomacy told journalists on Wednesday in Budapest.
Recalling the background of the case, Levente Magyar announced that the suspension of diplomatic immunity had been requested from his colleague John Kerry by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, upon the motion of Prosecutor General of Hungary Péter Polt. He noted that the reason for this request was the lawsuit launched by the Head of the Hungarian Tax and Customs Authority (NAV), Ildikó Vida on grounds of defamation.
In the Minister of State’s view, the suspension of immunity would have given the former Chargé d'Affaires the chance to stand up in front of the independent Hungarian justice system for the statements he made several times in public. Mr. Magyar recalled the statements of the diplomat concerning the U.S. decision to ban Hungarian citizens, including public officials such as the head of the tax authority NAV from entering the country. He added that, as his diplomatic immunity will not be suspended, André Goodfriend cannot inform the Hungarian public about the evidence substantiating the decision.
The Minister of State said that they have received John Kerry’s reply today and the Hungarian party regards the case as closed from a legal perspective. The government had pursued all legal avenues that would have made it possible to settle the issue in line with the principle of the rule of law, he explained.
Mr. Magyar announced that with the arrival of the new U.S. ambassador, Colleen Bradley Bell, every effort will be made to channel political dialogue into a track that makes it possible to raise the level of political cooperation between the United States and Hungary to high standards of partnership within the fields of defence and the economy. André Goodfriend left the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before the Minister of State’s press conference and was unwilling to make any comments.
In his interview with Hungarian weekly Heti Válasz, published on 4 December 2014, the U.S. Chargé d'Affaires said that the United States was aware of fraud within the Hungarian tax authority and he is not aware of any investigation launched in these cases. In response to the newspaper’s question as to whether there was any evidence for these allegations, he said: “we have the same evidence that the Hungarian government also received”. Ildikó Vida’s lawyer, Barnabás Futó, informed Hungarian news agency MTI on 11 December that the head of NAV had pressed charges and filed a lawsuit against André Goodfriend.
The Central Chief Prosecution Office of Investigation announced four days later that an investigation had been ordered on the basis of the lawsuit filed by the head of NAV on the grounds of suspicion of public defamation resulting in considerable harm. Péter Szijjártó said later in a radio interview that it is in Hungary’s interests to resolve all the open political issues pending between Hungary and the United States as soon as possible, but the openness and willingness of the Hungarian party is not enough - the same is needed from the U.S. side too, he noted.
Minister Szijjártó said he has high expectations regarding the arrival of the new ambassador. He added that so far the United States has not provided any evidence or documents to justify the corruption allegations, therefore, upon the request of the Prosecutor General of Hungary, he has sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State requesting more information about the evidence that could form the basis of charges within the framework of legal and judicial proceedings.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
